Building on last year’s semi-universal search tools
With Android 12, Google brought universal search to the Pixel Launcher for the first time, giving app drawer search the ability to browse through apps, contacts, settings, tips, and more. It was a great start to a long-awaited feature, with plenty of room to grow. It looks like Google is working on bringing additional categories to search for Android 13, with Photos integration getting spotted first.
The folks at 9to5Google discovered one of their devices running Android 13 DP1 could search through Google Photos, specifically browsing the screenshots folder when entering the term “screenshots.” This feature seems to be activated via a server-side test — 9to5 notes only one of their phones had this option, while I’m unable to perform the same action on any of my DP1 devices. It’s also possible a future update, like DP2 or next month’s Beta 1 release, could activate the option for more people.
As it stands, entering “screenshots” into the search box brings up a grid of recent snaps, all shareable right from the menu. It doesn’t seem like any other terms are working to grab image data from Google Photos, but it’s possible other labels — including facial matches — could eventually make their way into the Pixel app drawer.
With any luck, recent photos are just a start to the additions coming to universal search in Android 13. The ability to browse through Google services like Gmail and Calendar, or even third-party apps downloaded from the Play Store, would help make Pixel phones that much smarter.
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